ACM CareerNews for Tuesday, October 8, 2024
ACM CareerNews is intended as an objective career news digest for busy IT professionals. Views expressed are not necessarily those of ACM. To send comments, please write to [email protected]
Volume 20, Issue 19, October 8, 2024
What Is Behind the Return-to-Office Demands?
Computerworld, September 20
Recently, the debate about remote work has gained new momentum. That is because a number of high-profile tech companies are now requesting that their workers return to the office after a long period in which they were allowed to work remotely. At times, the pushback to these demands has gone public. Privately, employees are taking advantage of new tactics to preserve the remote work lifestyle.
Employers are now saying that working from home is equal to a salary increase of at least 10%. That, of course, has started discussions about differentiated pay between remote workers and those who work in the office. Quite simply, many workers are unprepared to accept a lower salary to work at home. Moreover, other surveys have shown that demands to return to the office do not bolster profitability, but instead create conflicts and risk driving away workers with needed skills, especially women and younger people. Based no the results of a recent survey, 52% of employees say they are more productive when they work from home and 37% work more there than when they are in the office. At the same time, 39% of managers feel working in the office has a positive impact on employee careers compared to working at home.
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Human Skills Still Outpace Demand For AI Skills
HR Dive, September 24
With AI and machine learning-related job postings on the rise, skills related to leadership and communication are becoming increasingly important in order to stand out in a crowded applicant pool. The most common soft skills mentioned in AI-related job postings tend to be communication, interpersonal collaboration and problem solving. In North America, demand for such skills outpaces digital skills by 2.4 times, while in Europe demand is 2.9 times higher than demand for digital skills.
Notably, generative AI-related job postings have surged 411% following the launch of ChatGPT in early 2023. However, that increase is contextualized by the fact that such jobs still only made up 0.3% of global job postings at their height in 2024. Moreover, those postings are concentrated in software development and IT services. But soft skills are also in high demand, especially as generative AI becomes embedded into everyday operations.
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A Majority of AI Professionals Are Looking to Change Jobs Over the Next Year
ZDNet.com, September 27
According to a new survey of more than 900 technology professionals, those working in artificial intelligence (AI) are far more confident in their career prospects than other IT professionals. A majority of AI professionals (58%) are confident about advancement, compared to only 36% of other tech professionals. In fact, a significant portion of AI professionals (73%) intend to change jobs over the coming year. Overall, tech professionals are hesitant about the adoption of AI tools into their workflow, and what it could mean for their career prospects.
Many tech professionals are concerned about their short-term prospects. In fact, 31% remain cautiously optimistic about the economic conditions over the next year. This figure is unchanged year-over-year. An equal percentage of tech professionals harbor pessimistic views. Younger tech professionals, those aged 18 to 34, are the least likely to hold an optimistic view of the economy, at only 20%. In fact, only four in ten tech professionals express confidence in finding a new role that meets their expectations, marking a significant decline from previous years. Still, around 80% of tech professionals expect the tech industry to continue its growth trajectory over the next five years. As expected in a tough macroeconomic situation, the economic outlook among tech professionals is more negative than in previous years. Equally concerning, many of them feel their bargaining power slipping away and are reluctant to take risks.
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The Recruiting Process Is Broken But Tech Is Not to Blame
Fast Company, September 30
The growing consensus is that the tech recruitment process is broken. Even when candidates choose a job posting for which they are qualified, and then craft a personalized cover letter explaining why they are a good fit, or customize their resume for the role, they will often receive an automated rejection. This can sometimes happen within minutes of submission. So are current AI recruiting tools to blame, or is there a much deeper reason for the flawed hiring process?
One important point to keep in mind is that technology can not reject candidates without input from people. While on a very basic level, technology (in the form of an applicant tracking system) is the tool physically rejecting applications before a hiring manager can look at them, technology has not yet evolved to the point where it can make decisions without human input. Even companies selling applicant tracking systems that utilize AI-assisted capabilities to help organizations streamline their hiring admit this fact. For example, applicant tracking systems can screen out and automatically reject resumes, but a team of AI-assisted robots does not dream up the parameters for rejection. People decide what keywords a resume must have or what missing qualifications warrant a rejection.
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How to Land a Tech Job in a Post-Layoff Market
Hackernoon, July 2
Many tech companies continue to hire despite the layoffs. But if you are looking for a job right now, you will need to take specific steps to win over potential employers. That is because these employers are struggling with problems of their own, and are looking for candidates who can help them deliver on their business priorities. So, for example, you will need to update your resume for specific skills that are in demand right now. And you will need to realize that a one-size-fits-all resume approach no longer works.
If you have recently lost your job in tech and are looking for another job, want to break into tech for the first time, or change your field within the tech industry, there are some things you can do. First of all, you need to update your resume. While this might sound cliche, your resume is your first introduction to hiring managers and recruiters, so you want to make that resume stand out and shine. Ensure your resume is in the right format, has details of your professional experience, and showcases your skills and certifications. Write resume sections that align your skills with the different job positions you apply to. A one-size-fits-all resume does not work anymore, so it is better to have multiple versions of your resume saved for applying to different jobs. Recruiters today focus on your core skills, certifications, data skills, and AI skills, so if you have these, emphasize them on your resume.
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IT Workers Struggle to Keep Up With Fast-Moving Tech
CIO Dive, September 27
IT workers are struggling to keep their skills up-to-date amid the fast pace of technology development, according to a new survey of current and aspiring tech workers. Half of current tech workers say they struggle to learn fast enough to keep pace with changes in technology, while nearly one-third of would-be technologists share the sentiment. Software engineering sits atop the list of priority skills to develop for current technologists, followed closely by cybersecurity, AI, and machine learning.
A lack of in-house skills can block any strategic business initiative, from generative AI deployments to cloud migrations or software upgrades. Though IT unemployment rates have crept up in 2024 compared to previous years, other indicators suggest an ongoing need for skilled technology workers across all industries. U.S. employers had more than half a million open technology postings in August. Generative AI deployment is helping drive up the demand for skilled technologists. Though the number of tech positions has grown more slowly in 2024 than last year, the share of AI roles across the sector has nearly doubled in the last five years.
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74% of Workers Suggest Employers to Blame For Their AI Skills Gap
CIO.com, October 1
AI is top of mind for workers who are concerned about the potential impact of this technology on their day-to-day jobs and long-term career prospects. Going forward, 92% of IT jobs are expected to be transformed by AI. As a result, 74% of IT pros are fearful that AI will make their skills obsolete. According to a recent survey, 35% of tech workers lack confidence that they have the skills required to succeed in their roles. Moreover, 41% of tech workers are concerned about an IT skills gap, which they fear will hold hem back from reaching their full potential.
The most critical IT skills gap involves AI and machine learning. That is because AI and machine learning skills now represent a top priority for hiring managers. In fact, 43% of respondents said AI was their biggest skills gap. However, when you look into the statistics for those who specifically pointed to AI as their biggest skills deficiency, only 21% said they lacked confidence in their skills and only 33% noted concerns about job security. This might suggest that, while these workers recognize their current lack of AI skills, they are more confident in their ability to learn the necessary skills to integrate AI into their workflows. That is, of course, if they get the opportunity. Among those workers who cited AI and machine learning as their biggest skills gaps, 74% said the AI training programs of their organizations are average to poor, versus 62% of respondents overall.
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8 Signs That Your Interview Prep Is Falling Short
Dice Insights, September 30
If you are not preparing sufficiently for interviews, you might be sabotaging your own job hunt. At the very least, it means that you might not make it past the first interview. That is because hiring managers expect seasoned technology professionals to have a basic understanding of the problems they will face in the role and some ideas about how to solve them. Yet a high percentage of candidates do not bother to research the nuances of the position or the challenges facing the company or industry before an interview.
If you seem like a perfect fit for the position and your phone interview with the manager or recruiter went well, only for all communication to stop immediately afterward, it is usually a marketing problem. When an employer stops responding, it is because you were unable to distinguish yourself from the other applicants. They are paying attention to someone, just not you. The truth is you have to sell yourself. The only way to answer why a company should hire you is to research the company and role and make sure the information you present in your resume and interviews explains the unique value you can provide to the organization.
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Assessing IT Project Success: Perception vs. Reality
ACM Queue, September 11
Project success has been a hot topic amongst computer science practitioners for a long time. The assumption, until recently, was that most IT projects show low levels of success. On the one hand, there are well-known studies that point out low levels of success over a long period of time. On the other hand, the reported results are typically based on perceptions and a limited set of criteria related to scope, time, and cost compliance. As a result, it is important to examine IT project success based on first-hand data from experienced IT project managers, and consider a wider set of objective criteria. This can lead to a new perspective on IT project results and more nuanced insights into project success.
IT plays a central role in modern organizations and is a business core asset essential to improving productivity, reducing costs, and gaining competitive advantage. Organizations must continuously innovate to maintain their competitive position, and the sustainable success of an organization is strongly associated with the success of IT projects such as those related to digital transformation. Projects are becoming more complex, and IT projects can take on many sizes and forms. They can encompass custom systems such as software development; commercial off-the-shelf implementations; systems improvement; process improvement using IT; systems migration; infrastructure enhancement; and consultancy. Consequently, project success is a complex, multidimensional, dynamic, and relative concept. In fact, the complexity and ambiguity surrounding the definition and measurement of project success have been recognized as problems themselves as awareness of success has evolved. This is often caused by differing perspectives on success by the project stakeholders.
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The Global Digital Compact
Communications of the ACM, September 4
Given the importance of software and digital technology to global economic development, new efforts are being undertaken to create a a Global Digital Compact (GDC). This GDC can act as a framework for further elaboration of agreements that might be reached on a multilateral basis to deal with the many challenges and opportunities apparent in a hyperconnected world. In short, there are risks when we rely on software and the internet on a daily basis, and many of these may not be readily apparent until it is too late. Thus, there is a critical need for better software design, development, test, and propagation processes.
The task facing computer science practitioners is how to improve their practices, such that bugs, glitches, and other software problems do not pose a major threat to their businesses. Recently, for example, a bug in software provided by CrowdStrike, which was propagated broadly in a routine software update, disabled tens of thousands of devices that were providing critical functionality for air travel. Wholesale grounding of aircraft and flight cancellations, among other operational business impacts, led to days of turmoil and tedious manual recovery. This shows that we need to defend against unintended mistakes, many of which lead to serious operational consequences. We also need to defend against deliberate attacks exploiting software vulnerabilities. In addition to defensive measures, we also need to find ways to collaborate, in some cases across international borders, to identify and hold accountable parties who, by intent or negligence, disrupt our virtual environments.
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